Faulty provincial tests blamed for lack of certified Cambodian court interpreters [in Ontario, Canada]

May 24, 2011
By Andrew Seymour
Ottawa Citizen (Ontario, Canada)

If you need a fully accredited Cambodian interpreter in an Ontario courtroom, you won’t find one.

The reason is that no one has passed the province’s stringent new testing system — a testing system that a conditionally accredited Cambodian interpreter told an Ottawa court Tuesday was flawed because portions of the Cambodian language test simply didn’t make sense.

The revelations emerged during a hearing to determine whether there was an interpreter qualified to assist Ottawa man Sovann Phan during what is expected to be a weeklong trial on allegations that he sexually assaulted a severely developmentally delayed teenager at the long-term care home where he worked in June 2009.

Canada’s Constitution provides that anyone in a court has the right to an interpreter if the person does not speak the language being used. The court has a duty to make sure the interpreters provided meet accepted standards under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

It was during a hearing to determine whether one of two available interpreters had sufficient qualifications to handle Phan’s trial that one of them testified he believed there were problems with the provincial test.

“I saw that the test was not done properly. The person who prepared the Cambodian test did not have enough proficiency in the Cambodian language,” said Toronto-based interpreter Cheong But. “There were a lot of flaws.”

But said he has since learned from the interpreters office that all of the other Cambodian interpreters in Ontario failed the new test, leaving him as the only one in the province to conditionally pass.

Assistant Crown attorney James Bocking said that did indeed seem to be the case, as the only other Cambodian interpreter who was once fully accredited has yet to take the new test. That interpreter, who was based in Windsor, wasn’t available to come to the Ottawa trial anyway, Bocking said.

The difficulties come as other freelance court interpreters across the Ottawa region refuse work over demands for higher pay. The Ottawa interpreters have also raised concerns about the courts increasingly relying on unqualified interpreters who can’t keep up with the rigours of the highly skilled, often stressful work, they do.

But, who has also worked for the Immigration and Refugee Board, testified his workload has become very heavy since he conditionally passed the test, which was put in place in 2009.

“When all the other interpreters failed the test, I got very busy,” said But. “I had to run from court to court, from traffic to criminal.”

But said he has worked in courtrooms from Toronto to North Bay and Sudbury nearly every day since.

“It’s a jet-set life,” Bocking remarked.

A medical doctor in Cambodia, But testified that he spoke four languages — Cambodian, English, French and Chinese.

He has also taken French and English translation courses at the University of Toronto, where he graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in microbiology and French language and linguistics.

However, he only received conditional accreditation.

Conditionally accredited interpreters are supposed to perform what are considered simple duties, like bail-hearing appearances, but are considered to lack the recommended proficiency to serve in weightier matters such as criminal trials.

Despite the conditional designation, But testified that he has worked in murder and drug trials.

The difficulties finding a fully accredited interpreter could have delayed Phan’s trial, but Ontario Court Justice Roydon Kealey decided the trial could proceed with But interpreting.

“It seems to me the accused’s Charter rights can be adequately protected through Mr. But as the interpreter, particularly given the reality that there is not in the province a fully accredited Cambodian interpreter available,” said Kealey, adding he was “comforted” knowing that Phan spoke some English.

A Cambodian-speaking Ottawa police officer who interviewed Phan put his level of English comprehension at 6.5 to 7 out of 10.

Kealey dismissed a second interpreter, a social worker who once worked at the Somerset Street West Community Health Centre who has worked in the courts before, but had failed the provincial test. He found she lacked the ability to handle a complex trial.

Phan’s lawyer, Brett McGarry, while not opposed to But’s appointment as an interpreter for the trial, said earlier court decisions have indicated “bilingualism is not enough.

“Translation is much more sophisticated than the ability to speak both languages,” said McGarry.

aseymour@ottawacitizen.com